Ninety Years Ago

Ninety years ago, and in the middle of the night, a group of nine scared people were waiting in the basement of the house where they were being imprisoned. Woken in the dead of night by the head guard, they’d been told to dress and go down to the basement, as they were to be moved elsewhere for their safety.

The mother had requested a chair, as she had painful sciatica. The father carried their chronically ill teenage son down into the basement. Their four daughters followed instructions quietly, as did the two retainers who had stayed loyally, each clutching pillows. One can imagine the dread that stalked them all.

They went down to the basement to die.

I am, of course, talking about the family of the last tsar of Russia. Peerless in his personal life, but a political disaster from the very first day, Tsar Nicholas II reportedly had his brains blown out right off the bat as his son watched helplessly in his arms.  Empress Alexandra—who had a portrait of Marie Antoinette in her famous mauve boudoir, an interesting fact that foreshadowed her fate—didn’t have time to cross herself.

The poor tsarevich, Alexis, star-crossed and doomed to die young, had his life cut off even shorter than his genetic illness would have made it, although he was ironically one of the last to die in the basement that night. The four beautiful girls, 22, 21, 19 and 17, were mowed down in that smoke-choked basement with their parents. The two retainers—the family doctor, Botkin, and a maid—followed their employers in death.

Alexis, who had come close to death a few times in his young life, had said at one point during their imprisonment in the Ipatiev House that he was not afraid to die, but was very afraid of what the men in that House of Special Purpose would do to them. He was right to be afraid. And certainly, the massacre in the basement was bad, but worse was to come.

At this point, we can stop and cluck our tongues and wag our heads and decry the brutality of the murders. Not many would argue that it was indeed brutal and cold blooded. However, it was a brilliant and necessary political move for Lenin: obliterate any support for the Romanovs by eliminating as many as they could get their hands on, and eliminate the live banner to rally around. It worked.

The Russians were pulled into revolution, wanted the tsarist regime and the attendant Orthodox Church gone. But in the years to come, the brutality of the Soviets would make Nicholas and his predecessors look like angels. There would always be an underground reverie for the slain family, even in the darkest days for Russia.

Yes, the murders were brutal. As a kid, I understood the political aspect of executing Nicholas, understood the necessity of including the despised Alexandra, and could even understand to a point the cold-hearted murder of a not-yet-fourteen year old boy—at least from the Soviet perspective. Yet, still, even I—a nobody— never got over the shock of all the children being massacred that night. I can’t imagine the horror and heartbreak of the family as they learned of the fate of the Emperor and his entire family. Yet, as details came through the span of history, I felt that there was no way on God’s green earth that any of them survived that night.

But the brutality didn’t end there. The men carrying out the orders that night had to be subhuman, agents of Satan himself, for who could cut up nine bodies, douse them with acid, attempt to burn them, and then bury them in an abandoned mine shaft? What kind of men were they? The gruesome and grisly tasks they carried out that night were beyond the pale in terms of human behavior.

All nine people that night would die in a blaze of bullets, have their bodies desecrated and scattered. They would not be found for nearly eighty years.

~~

In that stretch of time after the murders, there would be a romantic aura about the last imperial family of Russia; certainly the guards had some heart, certainly one of them, two of them, someone–anyone!–had to have survived.  They couldn’t have been so hateful, so cold. The denial spanned decades.

Marga Boodts claimed to be Olga, the eldest daughter. Larissa Tudor claimed to be Tatiana. A lady referred to as Granny Alina was touted to be Marie. One nutcase claimed to be a fifth daughter to Nicholas and Alexandra—oh, please; these people had people in attendance day and night, how could they have pulled that one off? Not bloody likely. There are no records substantiating the theory that Alexandra had a live birth in 1903. A hysterical pregnancy, yes, as documented; a live birth, no. Rumors swirled around them as it was, and this would have become public property in record time.

The most famous poseur, of course, was Franziska Schanzkowska. She made a lifelong living off of that romantic aura, that denial—and there are those that even today are in denial, even though all the family is accounted for now, and insist that Anna Anderson was Anastasia. The one-time factory worker even fooled some of the family who were desperate to believe. I never thought she looked a thing like Anastasia or any of the sisters—not even close, as far as I was concerned.  The eyes, the features, the expressions, all of them were just not Anastasia—how can we know? Because we are lucky to have all those pictures and even film clips of her, as she and her whole family were photography enthusiasts.

Just think: people spent fortunes and entire adult lives supporting a claim that was completely false. The late Earl Mountbatten, first cousin to the imperial children, must be happy in his afterlife knowing that he was right all along, he who had cherished the memory of his beloved Marie to the day he died.

Franziska wasn’t the only one to claim to be Anastasia—Eugenia Smith, Eleanora Kruger, and several others—and one looks back at their insistence, each one’s complete belief that she alone was indeed the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaievna of Russia.

Then, there were those who claimed to be the poor frail tsarevich. Michael Goleniewski (who oddly somewhat resembled the tsarevich’s uncle, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, whereas the adolescent Alexis most definitely did not) would try to convince people that he was the tsarevich, as would Alexis Brimeyer. A man called Heino Tammet, who is buried under a stone that has the name of Alexis Romanov-Tammet on the headstone, was obviously completely convinced of it. Strangely, none of the men who claimed to be Alexis suffered from hemophilia, a very important detail.

In the early 1990s, the remains of a portion of the family—Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their daughters—and the two retainers were identified. The five were reburied in Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998. It did not stem the rumors and fantastic stories that abounded, and in fact, some of them probably felt justified—see? They haven’t been found, so the story must be true!

Fast forward to the last couple of years: following the notes and memoirs of Yurovsky, the lead executioner that evil night, certain people were poking around near Koptyaki Road, and found the remains of two young people. The boy was adolescent, the girl in late adolescence/early adulthood. The remains, badly damaged and commingled, were sent for DNA analysis. And, considering the location at which they were found, was there really much doubt that these were indeed the ill-fated tsarevich and one of his sisters? At the end of April, 2008, it was confirmed. It was announced today in Russia that it was indeed the tsarevich and Grand Duchess Marie. They are all now accounted for.

The poor Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna, Nicholas’ mother—she insisted that Nicholas, his wife and children, and her son Michael were still alive until the day she died. In recent years, this woman who had borne the worst a mother could possibly face, was reinterred in Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her long dead husband. Now she will have Nicholas and his entire family nearby. Michael will always rest where he was carelessly dumped, and will never be reinterred in the cathedral.

But, now, Tsar Nicholas II Alexandrovich Romanov, his wife the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, his daughters the Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaievna, Tatiana Nikolaievna, Marie Nikolaievna, and Anastasia Nikolaievna, and his son, Tsarevich Alexis Nikolaievich have all been accounted for. Alexandra’s sister, Elisabeth, was found and reburied in Jerusalem several decades ago. The cousins who died with Elisabeth were also reburied. No trace of Michael Alexandrovich was ever found, nor will there ever be, as he was buried in a huge mass grave near the Kremlin in 1918.

With the parents and children thus reunited, let them rest in peace.

~~

Yet the squabbling does not stop.

The Russian Orthodox Church has treated the discovery of the remains ambiguously. The Patriarch had a schedule conflict and chose to not have anything to do with the memorial Masses held in Russia today. There are rumors that the Orthodox Church want to obtain the remains of Alexis and Marie to be revered as relics, but how true is this? They’re sending mixed messages.

The descendants of the remaining Romanovs that made it out of Russia are split into two separate groups. The first is the Romanov Family Association, headed up by Nicholas Romanov, who uses the title Prince.  The Association believes that the rights of the Romanovs to the throne of Russia were extinguished with the abdication of Nicholas II and the subsequent abdication of Grand Duke Michael. ‘Prince’ Nicholas and the Association claim that, upon the death of Grand Duke Vladimir (the alleged last son of a grand duke born to equal parentage) in 1992 that the rights transferred to ‘Prince’ Nicholas. Nicholas supposedly has the Almanach de Gotha—pretty much the bible on royal lineage and rights— on his side… whatever that means.

The second is Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, who claims the title Grand Duchess and has given the title of Grand Duke to her son, George. Her claim is through her father, Vladimir (referred to in the previous paragraph); and she claims that her parents’ marriage was equal, and therefore the line goes through her because a) there were no more eligible males alive from an equal marriage, and b) since that was the case, the rights have come to her through her father, the next senior male line in succession.

One would think that nobody can argue the valid claim of Maria’s father, the late Grand Duke Vladimir Kyrilovich, the son of Kyril Vladimirovich, son of Tsar Nicholas’ uncle Vladimir Alexandrovich, and Victoria Melita, born a Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Vladimir Kirillovich was indeed the son of an equal marriage. Simple, right?

Wrong.

It was quite the scandal after Queen Victoria died when Victoria Melita divorced her husband, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse (mentioned above). It was an even greater scandal when she and Kyril eloped in Tegernsee, in Bavaria. The action was not thought out well: Victoria Melita already pissed off the tsar and tsarina in divorcing Ernst Ludwig, who was Empress Alexandra’s brother. And then she and Kyril did not ask for the tsar’s required permission, and, also, the Russian Orthodox Church had a ban on first cousin marriages. The issue was not one of equality, for certainly she was of equal status. It was a marriage against all the rules. The couple flouted all the them, and seemed to be (selfishly?) confused when everyone was so upset. The tsar stripped Kyril of his allowance and banished him and his new wife from Russia. He also lost his succession rights.

This ban and the honors that were stripped were later reinstated by the tsar, but the cloud remained… a cloud from which the anti-Vladimirovichi faction started laying claim to their own rights.

The Vladimirovichi claim that the reinstatement obliterated the question over their rights. The anti- Vladimirovichi disagreed.

Kyril and Victoria Melita had two daughters in quick succession, and, once reinstated, led a merry life in the society of Imperial Russia. But when the proverbial excrement struck the air movement machine, it would turn out that Kyril didn’t really mean his oath of loyalty to the tsar:  when the emergency was hot he pulled out the red flag, another sticking point for the anti-Vladimirovichi folks. Traitor! Kyril would cover his ass with the new regime and sneak out of the country with his daughters and pregnant wife.

In exile, Victoria Melita would bear a son, Vladimir. There would be a cloud over Vladimir’s claim not only because of the foregoing, but also because Victoria Melita had not converted to Orthodoxy upon her marriage as per Romanov family law. She converted in 1907.

Yes, it got very silly. It got sillier.

Vladimir would marry late in life to a Georgian princess, Leonida Bagration-Moukhransky. Again, no biggie, right? Wrong, again. Although Leonida was well born, she was a divorcee. Then, there is conflict over whether Vladimir married equally, as the Bagrations were not considered royal. Romanov house law demands equal marriage, especially in regards to the heir. The Bagrations had only been considered nobility for several hundred years, although they had been a ruling house until the Russian tsars took it over. That was then, this is now.

So ‘Prince’ Nicholas, passing over the issues surrounding Vladimir’s death, stakes his claim on the assertion that Vladimir’s marriage to Leonida was unequal (morganatic), and that upon Vladimir’s death, the rights revert to his line, as he is the senior male in succession.

The problem with Nicholas’ claim? First, his own father married a Countess Cheremeteva–descendant of the Rurikid princes though she may be, she would never be considered equal under Pauline law. Then, he married an Italian countess, and therefore his marriage would be considered unequal as well.

It’s all very silly.

As far as I can see, NONE of them are eligible under the Pauline laws. Just plain silly.

Ladies and gentlement, give it up and get a life, would you?

~~

It’s enough to make your head spin. Both factions squabbling over an irrelevant position for a non-existent throne. Moreover, it’s a throne with little or no chance of restoration. Ex-King Constantine of Greece has a better chance of being reinstated than either of these factions to a throne that modern Russians don’t seem to give two pins about. Sure, they’re sorry about how the Romanovs came close to being exterminated, and they’re trying to atone in this modern era for the atrocity that happened ninety years ago. But certainly the Russians have bigger worries than what these two “adults” are bickering over.

Certainly ‘Grand Duke’ George Mikhailovich, Maria Vladimirovna’s son (whose father would definitely been eligible under Pauline law), hasn’t been very attentive to the cause. He hasn’t finished his education, and he hasn’t married. He seems content to work and play around in Belgium and be a playboy. In time, it seems, it won’t really matter anymore.

I think Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich had it right: if there was to be another tsar, the people would have to elect him.

~~

Ninety years ago, nine people.

Rest in Peace.

~~

Edited  on 7/18/08 to add corrections:

I wrote this post from my head at work without checking things. Two corrections. 1) There were four retainers in the basement that evil night with the imperial family: Dr. Botkin, the maid Demidova, the tsar’s valet Trupp and the cook, Kharitonov. There were eleven people murdered that night, not nine. 2) Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich was not executed at the Kremlin; he was shot at Perm in Siberia. He was reputedly buried in a shallow grave, but his remains have never been found.

My apologies for the errors.

You can read on about the circus with Ms. Romanova (which is honestly all she really is, as are her adversaries in the opposing camp–today, just ordinary people who happen to have extraordinary forebears) and the Russian Orthodox Church, and how they deny that the recent remains are those of the tsarevich and his sister.

Totally ridiculous and insulting. Sheesh.